An important counter to the idea made by Natural News.com. and accepted by our James Reed, is that the coronavirus is a bioweapon. Those holding that line usually go the next step and see the present pandemic as a sample of what is to come, as biological weapons are used in World War III. Here is a summary of the debate:
  https://thebulletin.org/2020/03/experts-know-the-new-coronavirus-is-not-a-bioweapon-they-disagree-on-whether-it-could-have-leaked-from-a-research-lab/

“Experts seem to agree it wasn’t the product of human engineering. Much research has been focused on the hypothesis that bats passed a virus to some intermediate host—perhaps pangolins, scaly ant-eating mammals—which subsequently passed it to humans. But the pangolin theory has not been conclusively proven. Some experts wonder whether a virus under study at a lab could have been accidentally released, something that’s happened in the past. Among the latest entrants to the debate about the provenance of SARS-CoV-2 are the authors of a March 17 Nature Medicine piece that takes a look at the virus’s characteristics—including the sites on the virus that allow it to bind to human cells. They looked at whether the virus was engineered by humans and present what appears to be convincing evidence it was not. They also considered the possibility that the outbreak could have resulted from an inadvertent lab release of a virus under study but concluded “we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”

     In these crazy times, here is where censorship over the coronavirus has gone, with Facebook removing a post by the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro:
  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/03/31/coronavirus-facebook-removes-post-by-brazilian-president-jair-bolsonaro/

“Shortly after Twitter removed a post about the coronavirus pandemic by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Facebook followed suit also removing the president’s post from its platform as well. TechCrunch reports that Facebook has appeared to stray from its general policy of not fact-checking politicians and removed a post by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro relating to the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, Bolsonaro shared a post stating that “hydroxychloroquine is working in all places,” to treat the coronavirus, Facebook removed the post to prevent the spread of “misinformation that could lead to physical harm.” The company said in a statement to TechCrunch: “We remove content on Facebook and Instagram that violates our Community Standards, which do not allow misinformation that could lead to physical harm.” Facebook says it specifically prohibits false claims relating to cures, treatments, the availability of essential services and outbreak locations. The removal of the post was first reported by BBC News Brazil. In the video which was removed Bolsonaro had been speaking to a street vendor and stated that “They want to work.” Bolsonaro also added that “medicine there, hydroxychloroquine, is working in all places.”

Not to worry those who might need an abortion over the lock down; at least in the UK, and probably coming soon to Australia, is do it yourself abortion kits:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/31/uk-diy-home-abortion-allowed-during-coronavirus-crisis/

“The UK government has bypassed parliament to enact emergency measures that will allow women to perform abortions at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has approved a “temporary” change to the nation’s abortion laws, allowing women who are within the first ten weeks of their pregnancy to take abortion pills at home. Under the previous law, women were required to have an in-person consultation with a doctor before being allowed to terminate a pregnancy. The updated law will allow doctors to send women two pregnancy terminating pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, following online or telephone consultation. The law will last for up to two years, or until the end of the crisis. “We are updating our guidance so women who need an abortion up to ten weeks and can’t access a clinic can use abortion pills at home,” said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman per The Sun. “This will be on a temporary basis and must follow a telephone or e-consultation with a doctor,” the spokesman added. The update to the law was celebrated by one of the country’s leading provider of abortion services, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which wrote: “This service will not only support the thousands of women that would usually attend one of our clinics, it will also protect our staff and the many other people these women could come into contact with.”

     I have been waiting each day for the political class to move at banning sex in some way, as it seems the next “just have to do it” thing to do as part of the present crisis:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8174285/Coronavirus-visit-BOYFRIEND.html?ito=push-notification&ci=11992&si=1326534

“Victoria has banned couples who do not live together from seeing each other to slow the spread of coronavirus. The state imposed a 'stay at home' order from midnight on 30 March until midnight on 13 April, with a few exceptions such as shopping or exercising. One resident asked on Twitter if she was allowed to visit her partner at his home. Police Minister Lisa Neville replied: 'You cannot visit your partner for social reasons.' Asked if a social visit was allowed, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said in a press conference: 'That's not work, that's not care-giving, that's not medical care, that's not shopping for the things you need when you need them, and it does not comply with the rules. People should not do that.' The strict rule also means that single people who connect on dating apps have no way to meet each other. The rules are different in New South Wales where couples are allowed to visit each other at home. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said visiting a partner counts as 'care' because it is vital for mental health. He said: 'I would put that under care, absolutely, mental health, that's under care… we need to look after each other.' The Victorian government website reads: 'Every interaction with another person carries the risk of transmission and should be avoided.'

     It is a vision out of some pos-apocalyptic movie, where all, or most of the human race has died off; deserted of humans, wild goats now roam the streets of Wales:
  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/31/europe/wild-goats-wales-streets-lockdown-scli-gbr/index.html

“A coastal town in north Wales has found a whole new meaning to the phrase herd immunity, after goats were spotted roaming its quiet streets. It comes just days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced tighter restrictions around social movement last week in a bid to limit the spread of coronavirus. Residents spotted herds of goats strolling around Llandudno on Friday and over the weekend, after more than a dozen of the animals ventured down from the Great Orme headland and roamed the streets of the coastal town.”

     The argument that the coronavirus is just a flu, or is instead much deadlier, would be decided by death rates. There is some evidence that many thousands died at Wuhan:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8165717/Locals-Wuhan-believe-42-000-people-died-coronavirus.html?ito=native_share_article-masthead

“Wuhan locals claim coronavirus has killed 42,000 people in the city alone, more than ten times the national figure claimed by Chinese authorities. The killer bug, which originated in Wuhan in China's Hubei Province has claimed the lives of 3,300 people and infected more than 81,000. Of those, 3,182 deaths were reported in Hubei Province. But residents in Wuhan claim 500 urns have been handed out to grieving families every day from seven separate funeral homes all serving the city. This means the ashes of 3,500 people are distributed every 24 hours. The homes - in Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang - have told grieving families that they will receive the ashes before April 5, the date of Qing Ming festival where people tend the graves of their ancestors. This means that 42,000 urns could be distributed in that 12-day period. Earlier reports stated that the Hankou premises received two shipments of 5,000 urns in just two days, according to local media. It comes as the province relaxed its two-month lockdown of 50million people.”

     So, according to the New World Order, countries do not have the right of self-protection from invaders:
  https://www.dw.com/en/central-european-states-broke-eu-law-by-refusing-refugees/a-52989354

“The European Court of Justice has ruled that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic acted against EU law when they rebuffed a migrant distribution deal as displaced people arrived to the bloc en masse in 2015. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic acted illegally by refusing to accept refugees in 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday. The Central European states refused to accept a plan by EU interior ministers in September 2015 to redistribute asylum applicants in Italy and Greece throughout the bloc. The court ruled that, by ignoring the decision, the countries had "failed to fulfill their obligations under European Union law." More than 1 million displaced people crossed into the European Union at the height of the crisis. About 160,000 of them were meant to be distributed among member states according to a quota system. Because Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic did not abide by the plan, only about 40,000 people were distributed. The three countries took in almost no displaced people during the two years in which the plan was in operation.

      What is Trump up to activating one million of the military reserve? It is hard to see why this is needed unless something utterly terrible is about to unfold, such as social breakdown, and/or World War III. Just imagine what Joe Dementia will do if he gets in, and he will not even be conscious of what he is doing, operating on instinct, not reason, like some sort of programmed insect.
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-29-prepare-for-war-trump-activates-one-million-military-reservists-coronavirus.html

“On Friday, with little fanfare, President Trump signed a new executive order that activates one million military reservists, bringing them back to active duty. This “national security & defense” executive order is entitled, “EO to Order the Selected Reserve and Certain Members of the Individual Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty.” It begins by citing the coronavirus pandemic and the state of emergency which has already been declared: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.),  and in furtherance of Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), which declared a national emergency by reason of the threat that the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 poses to our Nation’s healthcare systems, I hereby order as follows: It goes on to describe how the, “Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard” are authorized to activate one million reservists, calling them back to active duty. Ponder for a moment what events are taking place that would require the President of the United States to activate one million military reservists. For starters, this executive order obliterates any last shred of the narrative that, “this is just the flu.” No flu has resulted in a million soldiers being called to active duty. The real reason for this call-up is that Trump and the Pentagon know the coronavirus is just the opening salvo in a new world war that was initiated by China to crush America and achieve world domination. The one million reservists are being activated because the Pentagon expects battlefield casualties on a large scale. Because that’s what happens when your nation gets invaded by a foreign power. And in case you didn’t think things were serious enough already, the Pentagon just ordered high-level staffers into a deep underground military bunker in Colorado, something that never happens from “just the flu.” You need to listen to JR Nyquist, because he knows what’s about to happen. If communist China carries out the very plans its military leaders have openly bragged about for decades, America may soon be invaded by communist Chinese troops, likely aided by UN troops who are seeking to overthrow Trump and occupy America.”

     I have avoided using the Zoom technology, being a technophobe myself, and not trusting anything with electrons much. Who knows, the Chinese might be listening? Are they?
  https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/

“MEETINGS ON ZOOM, the increasingly popular video conferencing service, are encrypted using an algorithm with serious, well-known weaknesses, and sometimes using keys issued by servers in China, even when meeting participants are all in North America, according to researchers at the University of Toronto. The researchers also found that Zoom protects video and audio content using a home-grown encryption scheme, that there is a vulnerability in Zoom’s “waiting room” feature, and that Zoom appears to have at least 700 employees in China spread across three subsidiaries. They conclude, in a report for the university’s Citizen Lab — widely followed in information security circles — that Zoom’s service is “not suited for secrets” and that it may be legally obligated to disclose encryption keys to Chinese authorities and “responsive to pressure” from them. Zoom could not be reached for comment.

     China is working hard to deny any responsibility for the present coronavirus pandemic.  Of course, the politically correct thought police here in the West are working hard too, to make it “racist” and hence beyond the pale to speak of the “Chinese virus.” Anyway, China misled through release of incomplete and misleading data early in the piece:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/31/dr-deborah-birx-incomplete-chinese-data-misled-experts-on-seriousness-of-coronavirus/

“Dr. Deborah Birx on Tuesday said that medical experts failed to understand the seriousness of the coronavirus because of incomplete data coming out of China. “I think the medical community interpreted the Chinese data as that this was serious but smaller than anyone expected,” she said. “Because I think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data.” Birx spoke about the experts’ relationship with the data during a White House press briefing on Tuesday evening. She acknowledged frankly that when she saw early data from China reporting only 50,000 cases of the virus among the 20 million people in Wuhan, China, and the 80 million in Hubei province, she felt that the threat was similar to that of SARS, which had 8,098 cases globally and 774 deaths. The devastation hitting countries like Italy and Spain and South Korea gave the experts much more complete data, helping them draw models that were far more alarming. “Let’s see if we can do much better than that,” President Donald Trump said during the briefing, pointing to the models predicting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States. Trump noted that the virus was also more contagious than expected. “I think the one thing that nobody really knew about this virus was how contagious it was,” he said. “It’s so incredibly contagious, and nobody knew that.”

     No gym? No problem! The site below gives some tips on how to work out without a gym, and I know many of our readers are missing their workouts to keep fit and strong. Never mind, you can do well on body weight exercises, even when you are getting on a bit, and weight bearing exercise is good for dealing with bone degeneration and osteoarthritis. The basic exercises can be done with no weights, or using things just lying around, but, see a doctor first to get the ok. Push-ups, doing then on the knees until strong enough, calf raises on steps, body weight squats, and maybe using environmental objects, pullups from sturdy trees, lifting a bag with rocks to do overhead presses and biceps curls. Even power walking for those who cannot do any of this, will be find. Since we are imprisoned, you will need to walk around your cell. You are only limited by your imagination.
  https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2020/04/03/coronavirus-quarantine-workout-ideas.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200403Z1&et_cid=DM495145&et_rid=843143818

     Here out in the Victorian scrub, I have been in lockdown for years, and train daily, about 3.30 pm each day. Today, being Sunday, my day of “rest,” I do 4,000 calf raises off a log, and at least 1,000 squats, with a rotten tree trunk on my back. Then Bowie knife training. It entertains the lizards and crows, who watch the bush madman in amusement. But, it keeps my body strong and like steel, which is where I get my name.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFpzk9CTCX8

     You can be sure that if a collapse of the world was at hand, then the last act of the system would be to disarm we the people. I recall my father telling me that during World War II, whether this was law or not, when it looked like the Japanese were set to invade Australia, the local cops went about to collect guns from every one who had them. The guns were put in holding cells, because there was a concern that people might fight back. I see no reason to disbelieve the old guy, so I was not surprised to read that in the present day, as more citizens are wanting guns, the authorities just close it all down:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8170307/Australians-banned-buying-GUNS-huge-surge-people-trying-hold-firearms.html

“Victorians have been banned from purchasing guns after permit applications increased amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic. Police Minister Lisa Neville said at a press conference on Tuesday the number of people attempting to access firearms and ammunition had doubled. The minister and the National Cabinet decided to pause the sales of firearms and ammunition for sporting or recreational purposes. They fear an increased amount of weapons on the street would be dangerous as tensions rise and firearms may be stockpiled or accessed by criminals. We're responding to an increase in demand for firearms and ammunition across the country by doing what we can to protect licensed firearm owners and dealers as well as the broader community,' she said. 'We sincerely hope that Victoria Police does not have to issue one of these on the spot fines, and people do the right thing. 'But for those that don't, they will be dealt with.' The minister said the fear of domestic violence figures increasing as the state shuts down was another factor behind the pause of firearm sales. The ban will exclude farmers, rural landholders, professional vermin control staff and armed guards as their jobs are considered essential and require them to have access to firearms. The Queensland Government have banned firearms dealers from remaining open as they have been declared 'non-essential services.' In Western Australia, a similar regulation has been implemented but primary producers, professional pest shooters and Indigenous people practising native title rights to hunt are allowed to access firearms and ammunition.” 

     There is a Twitter twit hashtag, something that always reminds me of hash browns, #filmyourhospital, where people go to their hospital (question: violating quarantine?) and film activity, all allegedly showing relatively empty hospitals. Of course, people are in lock down, elective surgery has ben cancelled, and Suzy soccer mom types, taking Suzy to hospital because she fell over and skinned her knee, are no longer there. This, though, has been advanced as an argument by the coronaviral-sceptics to show that there is no crisis as all, that the emergency tents seen in previous flue seasons are not there, so this is all a storm in a teacup, or whatever the microbiological metaphor is. I have no full explanation for this. The sceptics could be right – I am keeping an open mind about this is coverage, and considering all points of view. But it is odd and definitely something to be kept monitoring.
  https://twitter.com/hashtag/filmyourhospital?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1244476019681021954&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailystormer.su%2Fwe-should-remember-the-people-who-promoted-this-coronavirus-hoax%2F

     Great news! Petrol prices are way down, dirt cheap, 50 cents a litre in some places, due to geo-politics and the coronavirus, which is an unexpected positive. Now to go on a long road trip. Wait, we are imprisoned in our homes under self-arrest. So, it is all for nothing. At least I can fill up the tank of the old Holden, one, and hope that no roaming gangs milk my tank. No, petrol is too cheap. 
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8175715/Sydney-service-station-lowers-petrol-price-50-CENTS-litre.html?ito=push-notification&ci=12026&si=1326534

     And speaking of homes, house prices are a-crashing.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8174539/Australian-house-prices-tipped-plunge-40-cent-coronavirus-hits-economy.html?ito=push-notification&ci=12014&si=1326534

     Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has called for a virtual Parliament to maintain oversight as the government looks to pass its $130 billion JobKeeper package on Wednesday. "You can't tell me in the 21st century that cannot be done," the Tasmanian senator told Fran Kelly on Radio National this morning. The Parliament practicing social distancing on Monday March 23. One third of Parliament will return to Canberra on Wednesday to pass the JobKeeper scheme, some being flown in on RAAF aircraft. Attorney-General and leader of the House of Representatives Christian Porter has said he would recall Parliament as needed while the pandemic raged on. However, the decision to dismiss Parliament in the first place has been criticised. Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said he disagrees with the decision, particularly given other parliaments across the world are continuing to sit. "We're a democracy. And in a democracy, you don't suspend it," he told News Breakfast. "It wasn't suspended during the Spanish flu, or World War I or World War II." Also speaking on News Breakfast this morning, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said there were "logistical" issues with Parliament continuing to sit, notably state border closures. "We do have an exemption in order to be able to get here, but we shouldn't really be stretching that beyond what is necessary," he said. "Because in the end, we're asking everybody to stay at home and to stop, sort of, moving around the countryside. We should really, as members of Parliament, try to stick to that as best we can, and keep our movements, our own movements, to a minimum as well." with Mary Ward

     Everyone is practicing social distancing, the new “safe sex” of our age, for those who remember what things were like in the AIDS panic back in the 1980s. But, social distancing must be done, if not yet at the point of a bayonet, then at least for now, at the point of an on-the-spot-fine. That being so, is the present distance enough? Should it be over four times as much? Certainly, a light year, the distance light travels in a year, would do the trick, in principle, but, hey, this is a pandemic, and there is no room here for light-heartedness, pun intended.
  https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/is-6-feet-enough-for-social-distancing-an-mit-researcher-says-droplets-carrying-coronavirus-can-travel-up-to-27-feet/ar-BB11Ww71
  https://www.nature.com/news/polopoly_fs/1.19996!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/534024a.pdf?origin=ppub
  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763852

“Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at MIT, has researched the dynamics of exhalations (coughs and sneezes, for instance) for years at The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory and found exhalations cause gaseous clouds that can travel up to 27 feet. Her research could have implications for the global COVID-19 pandemic, though measures called for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization call for six and three feet of space, respectively.  “There’s an urgency in revising the guidelines currently being given by the WHO and the CDC on the needs for protective equipment, particularly for the frontline health care workers,” Bourouiba told USA TODAY. Bourouiba’s research calls for better measures to protect health care workers and, potentially, more distance from infected people who are coughing or sneezing. She said current guidelines are based on “large droplets” as the method of transmission for the virus and the idea that those large droplets can only go a certain distance. In a Journal of the American Medical Association article published last week, Bourouiba said peak exhalation speeds can reach 33 to 100 feet per second and "currently used surgical and N95 masks are not tested for these potential characteristics of respiratory emissions." The idea that droplets "hit a virtual wall and stop there and after that we are safe," is not based on evidence found in her research, Bourouiba said, and also not based on "evidence that we have about COVID transmission."

     The Federal Government has set up a Royal Commission, originally about Bushfires, but now mainly about getting more power to the federal government. Here is the link to info on the enquiry:
  https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/

     The Saltbush Club has made a submission entitled:

     How far can anarcho-tyranny go? On the spot fines are nothing when the state can simply shoot you, on the spot!
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/dead-duterte-warns-violating-lockdown-200401164531160.html

“Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned he would order the country's police and military to shoot dead anyone "who creates trouble" during a month-long lockdown of the island of Luzon enforced to halt the spread of the coronavirus. "Let this be a warning to all. Follow the government at this time because it is critical that we have order," he said in a late-night televised national address on Wednesday. "And do not harm the health workers, the doctors ... because that is a serious crime. My orders to the police and the military, if anyone creates trouble, and their lives are in danger: shoot them dead." "Do not intimidate the government. Do not challenge the government. You will lose," he added in Filipino and English. Duterte's warning came after residents of a slum in Manila's Quezon City staged a protest along a highway near their shanty houses, claiming they had not received any food packs and other relief supplies since the lockdown began more than two weeks ago. Village security officers and police urged the residents to go back to their homes, but they refused, a police report said. Police broke up the protest and arrested 20 people, the report added.”

     It is the same kind of reasoning employed in a whole range of policies in the modern liberal state; something causes a problem, so ban it. Take firearms for example. The same causal principle lies behind the present social distancing measures: locate the cause, then ban it. And, in many cases that makes sense. But now consider this:
  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-breathing-talking-enough-spread-airborne

“The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may spread through the air in tiny particles that infected people exhale during normal breathing and speech. Until now, experts have said that the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, doesn’t spread through the air in that way, but rather through relatively large droplets released when people cough or sneeze. Those droplets can contaminate surfaces or objects and infect people who touch the surface and then touch their faces. Large droplets are still a means of infection, but researchers now say that tiny airborne particles may also carry infectious virus. “Currently available research supports the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients’ exhalation,” researchers from the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine wrote in an April 1 report to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. If the coronavirus is airborne, that could help explain why it is so contagious, and can spread before people have symptoms (SN: 3/13/20). As of April 2, more than 1 million people worldwide are confirmed to have COVID-19, with nearly a quarter of those cases in the United States, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University. More than 50,000 people have died worldwide, including more than 5,600 people in the United States. Wearing surgical masks can cut down on the amount of virus that infected people spread, the expert panel says, citing an unpublished study from the University of Hong Kong. The letter does not address whether wearing a mask will protect the person wearing the mask from catching the illness (SN: 3/27/20). How much virus a person must breathe in to get infected isn’t known. The report also notes that genetic material from the virus was detected more than two meters (six feet) away from patients’ hospital beds. That finding could indicate that physical distancing by at least two meters may not be enough to limit spread of the virus. Whether infectious virus could be carried that far or if the genetic material is from dead viruses isn’t yet known.”

     I was in my friendly neighbourhood supermarket, where a guy older than me, probably from WWII, lost it, being upset by regulations. “Why did I fight for this country?” he lamented, not being able to get all of his goods, and having to pack stuff, and numerous other pointless things. I said to him that it was not the staff’s fault that this was happening and that we little people are all victims. And, down the track supermarkets will probably close, so people will face mass starvation. Maybe before then we will not be even able to pay for food:
  https://au.finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/supermarket-price-rises-003401768.html

“Shoppers have accused Coles and Woolworths of “price gouging” even as supermarket shelves are being emptied by shoppers panic-buying amid fears of a looming shutdown and tens of thousands of job losses. Disgruntled shoppers on the hunt for supermarket essentials took to social media in order to air their frustrations about high prices and missing specials. “Why are there no specials in your stores at the moment - normally aisles are full of special offers but nothing- is this not price gouging while people are struggling with making ends meet?” posted one user about Coles. Another posted a photo of broccoli advertised for $11.50 per kilo. Broccoli is typically priced around $5 per kilo. Some users said they paid $5 for half a head of cauliflower, and others said they saw lettuce going for up to $8 a head. Another also said Coles’ prices were not only high, but stock was low, and asked what supermarkets were doing to help the country. The lack of specials did not go unnoticed by shoppers, with one saying there was “not one special on the shelves” and accused Woolworths of “profiteering”. A spokesperson for Woolworths said that there were multiple factors behind the price rise of produce, such as the drought and bushfire seasons impacting supply. “Due to pressures throughout the horticultural supply chain caused by drought, unseasonal weather and an unprecedented spike in demand, we're currently seeing an impact on the availability of some fresh fruit and vegetable lines,” the spokesperson said. “This has led to higher wholesale costs for some fruit and vegetable lines across the market and we're working closely with our growers to help manage this as best we can. “We understand the uncertainty facing households right now and remain focused on offering quality Australian grown food to our customers at competitive prices.” A Coles spokesperson told Yahoo Finance that the drought had hit Australian producers hard. “We are seeing upward price pressures across many agricultural categories as a result of the sustained drought across many of our producing regions. “In the case of produce, much of what our hard-working supplier partners are harvesting now was planted during tough drought conditions,” the spokesperson said. This is particularly true of vegetables such as leafy greens, broccoli, beans and corn. Meanwhile, “extreme hot weather” during Christmas and January saw the volume of tomatoes, capsicums and cucumbers impacted. “Our suppliers are enjoying more favourable growing conditions over recent weeks and we are confident that vegetable volumes will improve.”